One Week in CR -
Jul 18th, 2005, 10:53 AM
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One Week in CR -
We are brand new to this forum, but have found it so helpful so far! We are spending one week in CR in August. We are traveling with a 6 year old. The plan is to rent a car and spend the first 2 days in Manuel Antonio. We are also quite interested in the Arenal area, and Tortuguero. Is there a good way to accomplish this? Since one of us is dealing with arthritis made worse by long periods of sitting without possibility of moving, we'd rather not be stuck on a bus for a long period and we are concerned about humidity. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? Thanks so much for this and all other help provided in this great forum.
Sloth
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Jul 18th, 2005, 11:08 AM
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I would definitely recommend the Arenal area and Tortuguero. Tabacon Hot Springs is wonderful. I stayed at the Laguna Lodge in Tortuguero and I loved it.
Sorry, I can't be of any help regarding the rental car question. Hopefully, someone else can answer that. Hope you have a great trip.
Sorry, I can't be of any help regarding the rental car question. Hopefully, someone else can answer that. Hope you have a great trip.
Jul 18th, 2005, 12:53 PM
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Thanks to everyone for these replies. I will look into Tricolor and the Tortuguero flight option. I've noticed the rental car costs mentioned by other posters seem to vary quite a bit, especially from what I see on Orbitz. Any ideas why? Is it the 4WD difference? Or are there hidden costs outside of what Orbitz is quoting.
Jul 18th, 2005, 02:32 PM
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Hello, CR_Sloth
You must be excited to go to CR. I am going to CR at the end of Aug and did some extensive research on rental car...this is what I found so far
Price of rental car varies greatly due to
1. rental company( CR company is cheaper..they like tricolor, toyota rental, Poas, Adobe..just name a few..ppl do not like payless/Economy(affiliate of Advantage)..
2. Car types..Considering you are visiting in rainy season ( green season, if you want to sugar coat (=..) I think you ( and I ) should rent 4x4..cheapest seems to be Terios...Ppl like this car, but small and lacks power to pass slow moving trucks..terios run for about 35-40/day with unlimited mileage..to midsize like nissan x-trail/suzuki grand vitara, runs about 50-60..to full size like toyota 4-runner about 65-75..again depend on rental car company
3. Airport tax..if your branch is in airport, it is 16% more expensive..i think...although there are conflicted view on this..so i am not sure
4. Biggest add on would be insurance...usually runs about 25 for cdw, 10 for sli...some company will offer full coverage with no deductible for about 35-45..yes, it is more expensive than car rental itself..seems odd to me as well..if you have visa platinum, Visa offers CDW on rental car..so you need to just get SLI, as far as I understand..please correct me if I am wrong..
WHEW, this is all i have gathered myself..and i am going with Avis, just because ease of contacting, if i get into trouble,..I hope not though.
One more thing is..most of costa rican 4x4 are stick shift..if you are not comfortable with stick..you need to ask specific rental agency..i know dollar has automatic grand vitara..
All in all think you will have a blast!! it is very exciting to go CR, isn't it?? =)
You must be excited to go to CR. I am going to CR at the end of Aug and did some extensive research on rental car...this is what I found so far
Price of rental car varies greatly due to
1. rental company( CR company is cheaper..they like tricolor, toyota rental, Poas, Adobe..just name a few..ppl do not like payless/Economy(affiliate of Advantage)..
2. Car types..Considering you are visiting in rainy season ( green season, if you want to sugar coat (=..) I think you ( and I ) should rent 4x4..cheapest seems to be Terios...Ppl like this car, but small and lacks power to pass slow moving trucks..terios run for about 35-40/day with unlimited mileage..to midsize like nissan x-trail/suzuki grand vitara, runs about 50-60..to full size like toyota 4-runner about 65-75..again depend on rental car company
3. Airport tax..if your branch is in airport, it is 16% more expensive..i think...although there are conflicted view on this..so i am not sure
4. Biggest add on would be insurance...usually runs about 25 for cdw, 10 for sli...some company will offer full coverage with no deductible for about 35-45..yes, it is more expensive than car rental itself..seems odd to me as well..if you have visa platinum, Visa offers CDW on rental car..so you need to just get SLI, as far as I understand..please correct me if I am wrong..
WHEW, this is all i have gathered myself..and i am going with Avis, just because ease of contacting, if i get into trouble,..I hope not though.
One more thing is..most of costa rican 4x4 are stick shift..if you are not comfortable with stick..you need to ask specific rental agency..i know dollar has automatic grand vitara..
All in all think you will have a blast!! it is very exciting to go CR, isn't it?? =)
Jul 19th, 2005, 05:29 AM
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Tortuguero is a very interesting area of CR. We stayed at the Mawamba Lodge and could not have been more pleased.
There are two ways to get here - Bus/Boat or Plane. Someone recently reported on a private car/boat trip. For this leg of your trip, you will most likely need to spend the night in SJ, with an early morning pickup provided by the lodge of your choice. The bus trip was nice, with a stop for breakfast, another stop to look at the banana packing operations and then a short wait at the dock while loading for the canal trip in. Can't say about the return, we flew back to SJ.
As for MA, I hope you mean 2 nights and not just 1 night/2 days?
One week - do you have just 7 nights? If so I would not try to do all 3 locations.
With 7 nights it looks like this to me - Since you are driving, you will most likely get to MA in the mid to late afternoon with little time to do much other than get to know your hotel and have dinner. Stay 2 nights. 3rd day drive to Arenal - stay 2 nights. Day 5 back to SJ for overnight, Day 6 to Tortuguero for 2 nights, Back to SJ of Day 8 - which I assume you are flying home this day.
No - for 7 nights - I would prefer 2 locations.
Just my opinion..
There are two ways to get here - Bus/Boat or Plane. Someone recently reported on a private car/boat trip. For this leg of your trip, you will most likely need to spend the night in SJ, with an early morning pickup provided by the lodge of your choice. The bus trip was nice, with a stop for breakfast, another stop to look at the banana packing operations and then a short wait at the dock while loading for the canal trip in. Can't say about the return, we flew back to SJ.
As for MA, I hope you mean 2 nights and not just 1 night/2 days?
One week - do you have just 7 nights? If so I would not try to do all 3 locations.
With 7 nights it looks like this to me - Since you are driving, you will most likely get to MA in the mid to late afternoon with little time to do much other than get to know your hotel and have dinner. Stay 2 nights. 3rd day drive to Arenal - stay 2 nights. Day 5 back to SJ for overnight, Day 6 to Tortuguero for 2 nights, Back to SJ of Day 8 - which I assume you are flying home this day.
No - for 7 nights - I would prefer 2 locations.
Just my opinion..
Jul 19th, 2005, 06:39 AM
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Thanks again for the information, everyone, especially for the specifics on car rental!
We are going for only 7 nights, unfortunately. I think we had decided on only 2 places - MA and Arenal, but kept trying to add Tortuguero back in because we've heard so much about it. The trip there though sounds like it will take up a lot of our budget and a lot of our precious time, so that it might be more of a vacation to stick with the other 2. We have 2 nights in MA, so far.
One thing I've been wondering is, once you're in a hotel in the Arenal area (we are thinking of Villa Decary), is it possible and not exhausting to get to many of the things you'd want to see in the area - Tabacon, volcano, Fortuna, possibly caverns, etc? And how many nights is good?
Thanks so much for the help; this is all much harder than I thought it would be!
We are going for only 7 nights, unfortunately. I think we had decided on only 2 places - MA and Arenal, but kept trying to add Tortuguero back in because we've heard so much about it. The trip there though sounds like it will take up a lot of our budget and a lot of our precious time, so that it might be more of a vacation to stick with the other 2. We have 2 nights in MA, so far.
One thing I've been wondering is, once you're in a hotel in the Arenal area (we are thinking of Villa Decary), is it possible and not exhausting to get to many of the things you'd want to see in the area - Tabacon, volcano, Fortuna, possibly caverns, etc? And how many nights is good?
Thanks so much for the help; this is all much harder than I thought it would be!
Jul 19th, 2005, 06:57 AM
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Another thing I think we might enjoy, from what I've read is the Los Angeles Cloud Forest. Is it practical to drive from La Fortuna through La Tigra to Villablanca, see the cloud forest, then continue on to Alajuela the next day? It looks possible on the map... Thanks!
Jul 19th, 2005, 07:10 AM
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You don't have to miss the tortuguero feel. take a trip up to cano Negro from the arenal area. It will be the same type of thing as tortuguero. both take you out sight seeing in a boat. We saw great stuff in both places.
My hubby has severe arthritis in his feet, hands and neck and I think the party in your trip would be okay with the cano negro day tour.
My hubby has severe arthritis in his feet, hands and neck and I think the party in your trip would be okay with the cano negro day tour.
Jul 19th, 2005, 07:15 AM
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Suzie2 -
Thank you for the suggestion!! My husband has arthritis in his neck, which affects his back, legs, and head, so I don't want to do anything that's going to make him feel worse than he usually does. I'm thinking incredibly bumpy car rides or being stuck in a small boat would drive him nuts. How did your husband feel about the CR trip and his arthritis?
Thank you for the suggestion!! My husband has arthritis in his neck, which affects his back, legs, and head, so I don't want to do anything that's going to make him feel worse than he usually does. I'm thinking incredibly bumpy car rides or being stuck in a small boat would drive him nuts. How did your husband feel about the CR trip and his arthritis?
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